I very soon discovered that, give any Old Boy ten minutes, they would come up with the story about breaking the ice in the dormitory washbasins in the morning.  And they had a point. Central heating did not reach the dormitories till the nineteen-eighties, never mind the eighteen-eighties.

The school didn’t have the space to accommodate new inmates so it was decided to build a new boarding ‘house’. ‘House’ is a slightly euphemistic way of describing it. It was actually a separate wooden dormitory. 

Well, all right, a shed, if you insist. But quite a big one.

It won`t be like that in the grand new edifice that will be opened at West Buckland in the autumn. There will be baths and showers and toilets galore and central heating everywhere. 

And what will happen? When these new arrivals stagger into old age, they will bore their grandchildren with harrowing tales of the terrible privations they had to endure – light years away from the character-softening facilities which are currently swamping the younger generation and spoiling them rotten.

Berwick Coates

About the author...
Berwick Coates was educated at Kingston Grammar School, and read History at Cambridge. Since then, he has been at various times an Army officer, writer, artist, lecturer, careers adviser, games coach, and teacher of History, English, Latin, and Swahili. He has published nine books, ranging from A-Level History and popular history to memoirs, humour, cartoons, and light verse.

He has taught every age and every ability from primary remedial to Oxbridge entrance. He has lectured to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, on subjects ranging from Alexander the Great and Hannibal, through medieval and early modern history, to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

His latest book is a collection of fifty views of Christmas (illustrated by himself), entitled 'The Perfect Christmas Present'. He has also written four historical novels and one modern one. He is at present finishing a book of teaching memoirs.

A range of Berwick's books are available to purchase on Amazon